Comments on: Rogers iPhone Data Plans = Epic FAIL

By: jimmy

jimmy — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:43:17 +0000

Switched to Bell and got a blackberry as soon as I saw their absurdly high scam-level prices. Apple should not allow them to sell their products.

By: Aaron Jones

Aaron Jones — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:14:06 +0000

This is disgusting, another example of canadian cell phone users being gouged at every turn! These plans render the most attractive features of the iPhone useless!

By: Mario Bourque

Mario Bourque — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:11:13 +0000

Total FAIL. I’ll wait until Yak comes out with an unlimited data plan next year. Then, everybody who got locked into the Rogers deal will be stuck. Wait a year and you’ll have more options. Do you really want to be locked into a 3 year deal?

By: Jeffery Simpson

Jeffery Simpson — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:52:25 +0000

Population:

You didn’t actually address the issue of potential market based on population. Australia covers a far smaller portion of their nation, Russia has a much larger population.

The reason you can’t get a “Vancouver only” plan is that nobody actually wants that. Fido went under, or got bought out, because people wanted coverage in more than just major cities. When personal safety on the road is an important feature of phones people want coverage on major roadways where there might not be a large population.

Thus people in Vancouver help pay for coverage elsewhere. It’s the same, though on a for-profit model, as health care.

As I said, compare Rogers to Telus and Bell, not to countries where we don’t live. Other Canadian data rate plans are significantly more than Rogers’, and they’ve not spent the money to upgrade their network to GSM. $40 on Bell gets you 4 MB of data a month versus $30 for 300 MB on Rogers.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:03:26 +0000

@Jeffery Simpson wrote: “This isn’t the USA, there are completely different market forces at work here than there are down south. The ratio of geography to population for example skews pricing a great deal more than anyone seems to consider”

Nonsense.

Virtually the entire population of Canada is concentrated within a strip 100 km wide along the US border. Further, there are just a handful of major cities that contain most of that population. If anything, Canada should be cheaper to provision cellular services! There is no legitimate excuse for the rapacious practices of the Canadian telecom players.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 19:57:17 +0000

@Jeffery Simpson: You wrote: “…previous attempts at building new carriers in Canada had ended with them going out of business. For the most part they actually were bought out by one of the larger carriers.”

Bingo–the purposeful elimination of competition! Do the appropriate government bodies not give a damn about ordinary citizens?

By: Population

Population — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:10:20 +0000

I’m sick and tired of the “it’s such a big country with a sparse population” argument. I call bullshit. Ever heard of Russia or Australia? These are also big countries and don’t pay nearly what we do.

Besides, something like 75-90% of Canadians live in major cities. Why can’t I get a cheap “Vancouver-only” data plan?

It’s time we start boycotting some of their other properties. Rogers Video, CITY-TV, Sportsnet and so on.

Scumbags.

By: Candygurl112

Candygurl112 — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:47:14 +0000

understand where Rogers is coming from in order to cover the cost to subsidize the phone so that in turn it is “supposed to be” affordable for the average consumer. However, since they are locking customers in for 3 years, what should have been included in these plans should be MORE than what they have come up with. I mean if you look at the price they are making the “average” consumer pay, wouldn’t they include at least CALLER ID in the plan instead of paying an extra $15 for it. And also about the included weekday minutes 150? Which translates to only 5 mins each day throughout a typical month. Sure we can complain that we as Canadians (in ways of better data, voice plans) do not get the amazing plans our American counterparts get to receive. But we have to look in the reality of things and understand that Canada is only 1/10th the population of America. We do not have the consumer buying power nor the competition to bring those type of low costs here. Why do you think Canadians always go over the border to purchase items? Because of the fact that in the U.S they can afford to make their prices cheaper since there are so many more people buying. So to sum it all up, Canadians paying on average $3200/3 yr contract X 3,000,000 (who actually go on a contract IF THAT)
Rogers stands to make over $9.6 Billion over 3 yrs. Now if you were to take in to account AT&T. Americans paying on average $1680/2 yr contract X 10,000,000. At&T will make $16.8 Billion in just 2 years. So you see, its purchasing power, population!! We just don’t have that in Canada, that’s why they can charge whatever they want and not give us more for our money. Which is just so unfortunate for the AVERAGE CANADIAN consumer.

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